ELSEWHERE - Yan Ge in conversation with Tom Benn

We're delighted to be welcoming Yan Ge to Manchester for the launch of her new short story collection ELSEWHERE - nine iridescent, beguiling, witty and wondrous stories of dispossession and longing. Yan will be in conversation with Tom Benn (Oxblood)

'How do you know this is all real and happening? How can you be sure you haven't already died in the earthquake and are just living in the afterlife?'

In her highly anticipated English-language debut, Yan Ge explores isolation in nine iridescent, witty and wondrous tales. Both contemporary and ancient, real and surreal, the stories in Elsewhere range from China to Dublin to London and Stockholm.

From a group of writers lounging on the edge of a disaster zone to a mandarin ostracised from his old court trying to avoid assassination, and from a woman who inexplicably loses her voice to a couple who meet all too fleetingly at a cinema in Dublin, these are strange and beguiling stories of dispossession, longing and the diasporic experience.

About the author:

Yan Ge was born in Sichuan, China in 1984. She is a fiction writer in both Chinese and English who has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Mao Dun Literature Prize (Best Young Writer), and was named by People's Literature magazine as one of twenty future literature masters in China. Her work has been translated into English, French and German, among other languages. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia where she was the recipient of the UEA International Award 2018/19. She lives in Norwich.

Tom Benn's first novel The Doll Princess was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Portico Prize, and longlisted for the CWA's John Creasey Dagger. Benn's creative nonfiction has appeared in the Paris Review and he won the BFI's iWrite scheme for emerging screenwriters. His first film Real Gods Require Blood premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Short Film at the BFI London Film Festival. Oxblood was awarded the 2022 Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award and was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. Originally from Stockport, he teaches on the UEA Crime Fiction Creative Writing MA and lives in Norwich.

Doors: 6.30, starts: 6.45

Tickets are £3.00 or free when pre-ordering a copy of the book. ELSEWHERE will also be available to purchase on the night and Yan will be signing copies after the talk. If you would like a signed copy but cannot make the event, please contact us on 0161 274 3331 or [email protected] and we can arrange this for you.

Host or Publisher Blackwell's Bookshop Manchester